A growing Hispanic population feeds Blaine County’s job needs
Hispanics say they enjoy living in the Wood River Valley
None of the Hispanics interviewed in Blaine County said they had
encountered much discrimination here, as some of them said they had in California. One
young man, in the construction business, said his boss is a great guy who treats everyone
the same.
By GREG MOORE
Express Staff Writer
The Wood River Valley doesn’t have the Wonder
Bread ethnic makeup it used to. Hispanics are making up an increasingly large share of the
local population.
Hispanics—most from Mexico—are taking jobs that Anglos no longer
want. They supply most of the work force in landscaping, construction labor and kitchen
prep work—the summer jobs that used to be filled by young college graduates who
considered themselves ski bums.
Everrado Vega, 48, supervises a paver installation crew at Clearwater
Landscaping in Ketchum. He said that when he came to the Wood River Valley in 1992,
"there were only a few Hispanic people—you could count them."
Now, according to estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau, Blaine County
contains a bit over 700 Hispanics. But local Hispanics interviewed by the Mountain
Express say that estimate is too low. Guesses are in the range of 1,000 or so
Hispanics living in the Wood River Valley and another few hundred living to the south and
commuting here.
Larry Gardner, a construction supervisor at Clearwater, oversees 19
people. All but one, he said, are from Mexico.
"We have very few applications from Anglos," Gardner said.
That suits him fine. The Mexicans, he said, have a better work ethic.
"They’ve grown up working," Gardner said,
"They’re not afraid of it. The Hispanics will start at the bottom. The Anglos
want to start at the top."
Though they’re willing to start low and work long hours, local
Mexican workers don’t seem to be getting taken advantage of financially. At
Clearwater Landscaping, Gardner said, workers start at $8.35 an hour and get $11 an hour
after one month. Even that, he said, may not be enough to hold on to them with increasing
competition from the local construction industry.
According to local Hispanics, most come from the Mexican state of
Michuacan, west of Mexico City. In fact, many of them come from the same town--Coeneo. A
word-of-mouth pipeline has spread the message there that wages are good in Idaho. At
Clearwater Landscaping, Gardner said, the Hispanic employees are all related.
That situation’s not unique to Blaine County. According to
construction worker Oswaldo Medina, who has worked in many areas of the United States,
each island of Mexican immigration is made up of people from a particular part of Mexico.
Most Mexicans who migrate to Idaho have done so via job stints in other
states, primarily California. They say the wages are better in Idaho, and particularly in
Blaine County.
Although Blaine County’s Hispanic population is growing fast, that
population ranks only 22nd among counties in Idaho, according to estimates from
the U.S. Census Bureau. Canyon County, west of Boise, is first, with a Hispanic population
of over 20,000. Concentrated mostly along the agricultural areas of the Snake River Plain,
Idaho’s total Hispanic population is about 81,000, according to the Census Bureau.
Between 1990 and 1996, the state’s Hispanic population increased by over 50 percent,
the bureau reports.
How do all those people get here?
According to Blaine Dahlstrom, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization
Service officer in charge of the agency’s Boise office, the United states has an
annual cap per country on the number of people who can become U.S. residents. During
fiscal year 1997, the most recent year for which records are compiled, 798,378 people were
admitted as permanent residents to the United States. Of those, 146,865, or 18.4
percent—by far, the largest bloc—came from Mexico. The next highest Latin
American country was El Salvador, at a distant eighth place with 17,969 immigrants.
Dahlstrom said foreigners can petition for immigration through one of two
ways—family connections or the promise of a job here. Family connections, he said,
are by far the most common method.
Dahlstrom said that during fiscal 1997, 1,447 immigrants listed Idaho as
their state of destination. But once they arrived in the United States, Dahlstrom said,
it’s anybody’s guess as to where they ended up.
According to Dahlstrom, permanent residents can become citizens after
living in the United States for five years (or three years if they’re married to a
citizen) and passing a reading, writing and civics test. No convicted criminals are
allowed, he said. Citizens can bring their spouses and children into the country
immediately, he said.
Most of the Hispanics in Blaine County are young men. Hispanics
interviewed by the Mountain Express were divided on whether most local Hispanics
plan to reside in the United States, or are here to make money and return to Mexico. Those
who plan on staying believed that most other local Hispanics plan likewise; those who plan
to return believed most other Hispanics do, too.
Certainly, a good portion of Idaho’s Hispanics intend to become
Americans. School enrollment may be one indicator of that. Statewide, Hispanics make up
6.8 percent of the population, and about 4.4 percent of public school enrollment.
In Blaine County, the level of Hispanic students
stands at 12 percent, according to Blake Walsh, director of the school district’s
student services. The Hispanic population has been increasing at a rate of about 5 percent
a year for the past decade, he said.
"Every year, you see more people bringing their families," said
Belinda Colunga, who has lived in the Wood River Valley five years and owned the former La
Nortenita restaurant in Bellevue.
Life in the United States, local Hispanic immigrants say, is easier and
more predictable. Work is reliable. Things taken for granted here, such as car ownership,
are luxuries in Mexico.
"Everybody’s becoming Americanized," Colunga said.
"Before, the wife would never work. Here, where it’s expected, lots do
work."
All of the local Hispanics interviewed by the Mountain Express said
they enjoy living in the Wood River Valley, often citing the peaceful way of life here.
One 28-year-old man, who has lived in Hailey for nine years, said he appreciates "the
respect that exists between people." He said he likes the fact that he can leave his
car unlocked and find all the contents there when he returns.
One thing some Hispanics said they don’t like much about the area is
the local Mexican food, which they say only vaguely resembles what they’re accustomed
to.
"The dishes have the same names, but that’s about it," said
one person.
None of the Hispanics interviewed in Blaine County said they had
encountered much discrimination here, as some of them said they had in California. One
young man, in the construction business, said his boss is a great guy who treats everyone
the same.
"I think there are a lot of people like him here," the man said.
"That makes this valley pretty good."
Still, there seems to be little interaction between Anglos and Hispanics.
Alfredo Escandon, a second generation Mexican American and professional
psychotherapist, said he sees occasional "tragic-comic vignettes" in those
interactions.
He said that during one visit to the supermarket, he heard three Anglo
women talking glowingly of trips they had made to Cancun, referring to the "lovely
people" there. However, Escandon said, "they never once acknowledged the three
Mexicans standing right behind them, like you normally would people in close proximity. It
was like the Mexicans were invisible."
"How," he asks, "does a community give Mexicans so much
license—baby sitting, cleaning their house—but not really integrate them at all?
How many ask Mexicans to stay for a barbecue? It’s ‘You’re done with your
job—now go home.’"
If there’s a reluctance to socially integrate, it appears to go both
ways. Most valley Hispanics appear to keep to themselves. That’s due partly to the
language barrier, and partly to the fact that Mexican social life tends to revolve around
the family.
Many Hispanic people come from large families—one grandmother in
Hailey reported having had 12 children. Though younger Hispanics said they don’t want
so many kids themselves, they still tend to get married in their early 20s and to spend
their free time with their children.
Organized events attended by Hispanics include weekly dances to Mexican
music at the Hailey armory, a Hispanic soccer league and Saturday night services in
Spanish at St. Charles Catholic Church in Hailey.
When asked what he does for fun, one 17-year-old Hispanic in Hailey
answered, "Cruisin’"—mostly in Twin Falls, Rupert or Jerome, he said,
where there are more young Hispanics than there are here.
In almost all the Hispanic homes visited by Mountain Express
reporters, there was a television set. One family said they receive 23 Spanish-language
stations on cable.
Few Hispanics seem to take advantage of the outdoor sports for which the
Sun Valley area is famous.
"Most of those sports are too expensive for us," said one young
man. "Most of us are here to make money and support our children. If we go and play
all those sports, we won’t have enough money for them."
Belinda Colunga said that although most Hispanics are here to work and get
ahead, "there’s the other side that are just freeloaders." She blames most
of the freeloading behavior on people who are in the area only seasonally.
The quantity of freeloaders may be reflected in the relatively high
proportion of Hispanic names that appear on local police blotters.
Ray Pena, a Rupert criminal defense attorney and third-generation
Mexican-American, acknowledged that as a percentage of population, local Hispanics
probably do get into more legal trouble than do Anglos. However, he said, it’s hard
to tell whether Hispanics commit more offenses or are just watched more closely by police.
He said, however, that he has heard few complaints about police harassment from his
Hispanic clients.
Asked if local Hispanics feel police target them, Belinda Colunga said,
"Sometimes I think they do [feel that]. But sometimes I think it’s your
conscience. If you don’t have a good conscience, you say, ‘Oh, they’re
picking on me.’"
Most local Hispanic criminal suspects are in the country illegally.
I.N.S. officer Dahlstrom said estimates of the number of illegal
immigrants in the United States range between 5 million and 12 million.
However, he admitted, "we have no clue. If we knew, they
wouldn’t be here."
Dahlstrom said he’s inclined to believe the higher estimates. In
Idaho, he said, most of the Border Patrol’s scarce manpower is spent on picking up
illegal immigrants from jails.
"The criminal aliens are our priority," he said.
For all of the valley’s Mexican immigrants, relocating in the United
States requires giving up things they loved about their own country.
"You miss everything," said one young man. "But you have to
look for a new life. Maybe some day if our country gets to be the way we want it,
we’ll all go back. But I don’t think that will happen. So we need to teach our
children everything about our culture, so they have something of Mexico, too."
